I built a website and registered the domain for a one man company - then he never paid me and put up a new site - now i receive a C&D telling me to give him the domain i registered. There are a few companies with the same name, and i'd rather give the domain to them than some asshole who didn't pay me... comments?
If he contracted you to register the domain (and I mean actual contract that you can bring into court with his signature) and he has not payed for those services send him a letter telling him he has not paid for the domain he asked to be registered under contract and cite the sections of the contract about the domain. If there is no contract and he has registered his business name you may be in trouble.
It was a verble contract last December - when the domain was registered, and project started - he just registered an LLC in the past 2 weeks He physically came to my house and worked with me on the project.
The company I want to give it to has the trademark and everything, this guy just has an LLC with the word "Music" after his fake "stage name".
A trademark doesn't give you exclusive rights to a name. If you give this domain to someone else (and it's not up to you to decide who has legal trademark rights and who doesn't) and this individual decides to sue you, do you want to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees to defend yourself? Dispute what is owed to you, or give them the domain. Don't open the door to further problems by giving it to someone else.
To avoid any complications, if it were me, I would give him the domain. I wouldn't have included myself in a partnership that didn't have written obligations. I agree, it's too much of a risk not to hand it over.
Sounds like he's trying to use extortion against you. Don't let him touch your script just give him the domain unless you want to fight it. This isn't one of those bait and switch schemes where you paid a nice some of money $$$ to do this then he just uses his copyright to take it away from you? You paid just a standard 2 year fee for the domain name? If the money is under $25-$50 I'd probably just give it to him and put it as a loss, but if it's a nice amount it sounds shady on his part.